The American Hunters & Shooters Association (AHSA) is an organization that was created by long time gun control and anti-hunting activists in 2006. Its sole reason for existing is to deceive hunters and attack the National Rifle Association (NRA) by making false allegations. AHSA's goal is to drive a wedge between the NRA and hunters and keep hunters from supporting pro-gun/pro-hunting candidates in November. It has been exposed for what it is, but that hasn't stopped the AHSA from mass-mailing emails to supporters of the Brady Campaign gun control agenda.

Brady Campaign and anti-gun/anti-hunting AHSA share email lists

Apparently the Brady Campaign to [Ban all Guns] has provided its email list to the bogus anti-gun/anti-hunting organization deceptively named the American Hunters & Shooters Association. I was forwarded a copy of an email from the AHSA blasting the NRA and supporting proven gun control proponent, Barack Obama. The person who sent me the email is on the Brady email list, but they never signed up for emails from the AHSA. Oops Sarah, you have been caught trying to deceive us -- yet again! Do you think freedom-loving gun owners are so simple minded as to fall for this lame trick?

Connection between Brady Campaign and AHSA

There is more evidence of the Brady/AHSA connection. As noted on the NRA's website, its President, Ray Schoenke, has a financial history of promoting gun control groups, including the Brady Campaign. He has made political donations to Al Gore, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, and Ted Kennedy. Mr. Schoenke donated $5,000 to Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign) in 2000 and his foundation, the Ray and Holly Schoenke Foundation also donationed to the Brady Campaign.

AHSA Board member John Rosenthal remains the leader of Stop Handgun Violence, a Massachusetts anti-gun group. And one of the leading organizers of AHSA is Bob Ricker, who has served as a paid expert witness against gun manufacturers in a number of reckless lawsuits. These are mere examples of the connections between AHSA, Brady and numerous other gun control politicians and organizations.

Overall goal and philosophy of AHSA and the Brady Campaign are identical

Even a cursory review of AHSA's website shows they are nothing more than a shill for the Brady Campaign's long-standing anti-gun campaign. The AHSA foolishly used the identical phrase "common sense" used by Brady in a futile attempt to conceal their true goals of gradually disarming Americans. See if the language in the website tab labled "Common Sense" sounds familiar.

Common Sense

AHSA is committed to advancing common-sense gun policy initiatives that will have an immediate impact on violence, crime, accidental injury and death and make our country safer.

AHSA's President, Ray Schoenke, must agree with Sarah Brady's view that those who truly support the Second Amendment are fools who will fall for anything.

Listen to Mr. Schoenke himself and you decide if the AHSA supports hunters and gun owners, or the Brady Campaign agenda. Just as the Brady Campaign resorts to lies and scare tactics, so too does the AHSA when it throws out anti-gun cliches like "illegal guns," "criminals and terrorists," "support police chiefs and mayors," and "keep our communities safe." Just as the Bradys lie about the Tiahrt Amendment, so too does the AHSA when it claims that the Tiahrt Amendment denies law enforcement access to BATFE gun trace information. (For the facts on the Tiahrt Amendment, check out the NRAs website.)

Did you notice the reference to dog fighting and cock fighting? AHSA's President Schoenke is so intellectually dishonest as to imply that the NRA supports dog fighting and cock fighting, though he is not so brazen as to expressly state something that preposterous. In truth, the dog fighting and cock fighting angle was created in the mind of Wayne Pacelle of the anti-gun/anti-hunting Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), but the AHSA is only too happy to promote this false allegation. The tactic is to equate legal hunting with illegal dog and cock fighting and argue that those who support hunting also support dog and cock fighting. It is a despicable lie, but Mr. Schoenke is no more constrained by the truth than is Sarah Brady and Mayor Bloomberg.

Here is an excerpt from the NRA's website on constitutional amendment to defend hunting, and the opponents' attempt to equate hunting to dog and cock fighting:

This new approach provides specific protections against the kinds of prohibitions most likely to be sought by Wayne Pacelle’s Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and others. It is hard to argue that including more specific language in a constitutional amendment is bad, especially in an age when many judges seem to believe that their personal political agenda trumps the plain language of constitutions. Addressing specific issues limits the potential for mischief from the bench.

Make no mistake about it; the threat to our sporting heritage posed by HSUS’ Pacelle and the young anti-freedom crusaders his $120 million-a-year organization is funding is real. They are hoping that the continuing population shifts from rural to urban America and the associated changes in values will soon provide for a political climate that will allow the majority of non-hunters to crush the hunting minority—relegating us to political insignificance. For the time being, however, polls show that hunting is supported by a healthy majority of Americans. They understand that America’s hunters are the nation’s true conservationists and ethical wildlife managers who provide an essential public service.

Pacelle has told the Associated Press, “If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would.” He wasn’t concealing his agenda when he told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, “Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting. Our opponents say that hunting is a tradition. We say traditions can change.”

Look also at the not-so-veiled anti-gun rhetoric posted on AHSA's website. You will recognize the arguments as vintage Brady Campaign lies and propaganda. For example, AHSA sprinkles the terms "common sense," "safety," and "security" in their propaganda just like other anti-gun organizations in an attempt to conceal their true goals. While claiming to believe the Second Amendment is an individual right, AHSA quickly resorts to the use of traditional anti-gun buzz words equating gun owners to "criminals and terrorists."

Gun Legislation & Policy

'A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed'

These 27 words protect the rights of Americans to own and use guns. The American Hunters and Shooters Association is committed to these words and the ideas and principals behind them. Protecting our homes, preserving our liberties, hunting, and sport shooting are American values that AHSA will vigorously defend.

But, there is no constitutional right to arms for criminals, terrorists, or others who seek to abuse the very freedoms the Constitution guarantees.

According to legal memoranda filed in court by the United States Justice Department, the Second Amendment allows for the passage of reasonable laws designed to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Under the Constitution and laws of the United States, gun ownership is a protected right. But it is a right that when exercised requires the utmost in responsibility and vigilance.

In formulating AHSA legislative policy the AHSA Board of Directors will always weigh the common sense interest of hunters and shooters against basic safety and security interests of our community at large. In this way a rational, well thought out approach to firearms policy will be developed and promoted.

Each week AHSA will examine a gun policy issue in order to better inform our members of the issues that shape public opinion about the shooting sports.

(Emphasis added.)

Well, this sounds quite familiar. It should, they are the same lies the Brady bunch has been spewing for years. While claiming to support "hunting and sport shooting," there is no reference to lawful use of firearms in self-defense, much less concealed carry for self-defense.

AHSA supports requiring all transfers of firearms at gun shows to be subject to all federal, state and local laws and regulations currently applicable to federally licensed firearm dealers including the conducting of the instant background check on purchasers.

What does this have to do with protecting hunting and hunting grounds? Absolutely nothing! This is nothing more than an attempt to make it look like a hunting organization supports yet more unnecessary and ineffective gun control.

Issue: Modern semiautomatic .50 caliber BMG sniper rifles are weapons designed for military use that combine long range, accuracy, and massive power. Intended for use in combat situations, these weapons can penetrate structures and destroy or disable light armored vehicles, radar dishes, helicopters, stationary airplanes, and other “high-value” military targets. The Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, Al Qaeda, the Irish Republican Army, street and motorcycle gangs in California, Missouri and Indiana, and various militia groups and criminals across the United States are all documented as having possessed or used modern .50 caliber BMG sniper rifles.

AHSA supports legislative efforts to regulate .50 caliber BMG sniper rifles in the same manner as machine guns are regulated under the provisions of the National Firearms Act of 1934.

What does this have to do with protecting hunting or hunting grounds? Absolutely nothing! Brady and her ilk have been trying to create a problem where none exists, simply to argue that rifles in .50 BMG should be banned. The AHSA has now joined in that effort.

The American Hunting & Shooting Association is a fraud. It is nothing more than an attempt by long-time opponents of gun ownership and hunting to deceive hunters and either get them to support Barack Obama, or stay away from the polls on election day. This tactic is despicable.

People and organizations that have opposing views should virarously argue their respective positions, but they should do so honestly and openly. Committed gun control fanatics creating an organization named the American Hunting & Shooting Association and claiming to be pro-gun and pro-hunting is as dishonest and deceitful as a bunch of Nazi war criminals forming the Holocaust Survivors Educational Association and trying to convince people the holocaust never happened.